Reports and photos by Carol Ross Joynt about life in and around Washington DC

04/06/2011

An Hour, A Day, A Week: Onward

TUESDAY, FROM THE 5TH FLOOR AT GEORGETOWN UNIV HOSPITAL

Let's see, what a week, so far. I was absent here the past 48 hours because my son became ill, was admitted to Georgetown University Hospital, put on antibiotics for 24 hours, and is now better and home. He'll return to the dorm tomorrow. It seems he had an extreme strep. It stopped everything in our worlds. Don't know what I would have done had it happened concurrent with The Q&A Cafe, which is tomorrow, but we would have figured it out and got through it. He didn't need me with him all of the time--obviously, he's 19--but still, he'd never before had to spend a night in the hospital and I wanted to be there for him ... if only to refill his water pitcher, be a second set of ears to listen to the doctors, and so forth.

I was also supposed to begin radiation yesterday, but the machine was down. They thought it might be back up in the afternoon, but it wasn't and so I will begin tomorrow, and go from there to the Ritz and do the show, which I'm looking forward to in a big way. David Rubenstein, wow. There's just so much there. Also, we have a lot of reservations, which is encouraging.

Once radiation begins, it is every single weekday for 17 days. The "experts"--those who have been through the treatment--recommend naps and walks.

For so many of us each hour, each day, each week is a balancing act of time management. One surprise and the whole plan comes apart. I don't like it that way. Wish I had more wide open spaces. In fact, I'm striving this month to back it down, make time, give myself space to just do radiation every day and deal with that. To make the month about wellness and peace of mind. It's amazing to me how difficult that can be. If I'm fortunate, May will be a fun month of book promotion.

I hope you're coming to The Q&A Cafe tomorrow. I have to get back to my homework now. Onward.

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Carol Joynt has "a perfect eye, an infallible ear and the unequaled gift of rearranging the alphabet into words which both entertain and mean f**cking something."

-- "Hollywood Bob"

THE Q&A CAFE

The next Q&A is Thursday July 16, with Wednesday Martin, author of "Primates of Park Avenue." For reservations at the George Town Club, please call 202-333-9330 Don't miss this. It's the summer beach read and her only DC appearance. Noon, with lunch served, $35. Politics & Prose will sell the book. All are welcome.